Let the excitement begin!

Well, things have been relatively quiet for the last 11 weeks (thank goodness!) and I guess this little lady just couldn't wait to get things going!!  On sunday night I started having some pretty regular contractions (every 3 minutes) that were strong enough to keep me up from about 1am until 4am.  Things gradually slowed down and since we already had a doctor's appointment on monday, I didn't end up calling the emergency on-call line.  At our appointment monday, I mentioned to the doctor my little "night-time excitement" and she checked my cervix to find that I was about 1cm dilated.  This is the first time that I have had any cervical changes during this whole experience, so that definitely got my attention.  We discussed that this could be a sign that things are starting to move towards real labor and put me on a monitor to see how many contractions I was having.  The contractions were pretty quiet, and not terribly regular, so she decided to start me on a medication called Nifedipine (it's actually a blood pressure medicine that relaxes the uterus as a side effect) to help keep the contractions under control.  She also stressed that if I started to have more regular contractions again, that I will have to be more proactive about calling right away instead of trying to wait things out.
    So, of course my lovely uterus decided to act up not terribly long after that!  Tuesday evening I started having contractions about every 5 minutes, so I called our doctor and she sent me to the Maternal Assessment Center at the hospital to have the contractions monitored and also to get a medication called Betamethasone (a steroid that helps the baby's lungs mature faster).  So, around 9pm Tom and I headed to the hospital with bags packed just in case!  As soon as we arrived the nurses hooked me up to the monitors and I was contracting every 3 minutes, so she gave me the betamethasone (steroid) and called my doctor.  My doctor had ordered some tests along with another injection to slow contractions (called Terbutiline).  So....another needle poke and the contractions slowed down almost to a complete stop!  we then had a fetal fibronectin test done to determine whether there was a good chance that the baby will be born in the next two weeks.  Thank goodness the test came back NEGATIVE!!!  This means that there is a 99% chance that she will wait at least two weeks before she arrives!!  I was so happy!!
    We were released from the hospital around 11pm and happily went home to get some sleep!  Now our plan is to maintain strict bedrest (versus the semi-modified bedrest I was allowed before) and to keep a very close eye on the contraction count.  So far, so good today!!  I will return to the hospital tonight for the second steroid injection (they always give two doses if they can) and then it's back home to keep laying around.
    Thank you to everyone for all of your support!!!  We could not have made it this far without all of your love and assistance with everything!  We are so incredibly blessed to have such amazing friends and family.  We are hoping to have at least a few more weeks of good reports for you ;-)  I will definitely keep this blog going after our little lady arrives to keep you updated on her life outside of the womb!